CRESSY District High School's dramatic improvement in post-year 10 figures has been singled out by a national organisation.
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A Dusseldorp Forum report released earlier this month credited the school with being an "outstanding example of increased retention" and pointed to the school's involvement in the Beacon program as a contributing factor to the spike.
In 2009, just 58 per cent of the school's grade 10 students went on to complete further education or training.
By 2013, that figure had shot up to 97 per cent.
Beacon Foundation chief executive Scott Harris said the statistics showed how successful education engagement initiatives could be.
"The tremendous results of Cressy DHS are testimony to what can be achieved when a school is willing to look beyond the standard school curriculum and a community is willing to stand behind their school," he said.
The Beacon program aims to connect students with businesses in their local community and encourage discussions about education past grade 10.
Cressy principal Craig Brown said it was important for students to start thinking about a career before finishing secondary school.
"It's giving kids a direction so that they know what they're going to do after the end of year 10 rather than just getting to the end of year 10 and trying to work out what they want to do then," he said.
Mr Brown said students had responded very positively to talks from business professionals in the local community.
"We've found that that's pretty good because it's actually people who are doing the job rather than just their teachers telling them.
"It gives them a pathway so if they want to be an engineer ... they can plot out a pathway for what they've got to do in year 11 or 12 to get into the appropriate university and go on from there."